Christmas in France this year was a sumptuous affair. It was just as extravagant, as classy, as gourmet as you would expect from a hoity-toity Parisian family—expect we were an average French family in a small town in Savoie.

Christmas dinner was actually two dinners, one Christmas Eve, and the other Christmas day. And we’re not talking one dinner with leftovers; Sophie, the lady of the house, planned two independent, equally extensive menus. In fact I’m still full, 4 days after Christmas.

The festivities actually began the Monday previous, when I embarked on a grand sugar adventure with the two kids of the house, Célie and Valentin. We made a gingerbread house (see below post) and decorated Christmas cookies. I also made another batch of the Linzertorte cookies, this time using three kinds of jam for added holiday punch: raspberry, blueberry, and apricot.

Directions1. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla with the last egg. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Cover and refrigerate dough overnight.2. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with Christmas cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.3. Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. If using cutters that have small appendages, such as reindeer legs, reduce the baking time or they will overcook. Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.4. Beat the butter and confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl, mixture will be stiff. Add the vanilla and slowly mix in the milk a little at a time until a spreading consistency is reached. Stir in food coloring, if desired. Make sure cookies are completely cool before frosting.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, about 8 o’clock. We pour some before-dinner drinks (champagne, wine, whisky, a liquor from the south called Pastis, a liquor from the region called Chartreuse, and coca-cola for the kids), and munch on hors-d’œuvres (this word is not used in French, by the way—the word is amuse-bouche). These include various toasts topped with salmon, fish roe, or cream cheese, some cream puff pastries filled with escargot (the clear winner of the appetizers), and a cheese ball that I contributed.

Holiday Cheese Ball

This ball has a bit of spiciness to it, which I love. Tone up or down the mustard, Tabasco, and cayenne to your preference.

1. Roast the nuts in a pan over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, shaking the pan often to prevent burning. Crush into small pieces and leave to cool.2. Mix the cheeses, garlic, green onion, mustard, Tabasco, and cayenne. Scrape out onto a big sheet of plastic wrap and wrap into a ball. Put the ball into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.3. Mix the nut pieces and the parsley in a shallow bowl. Unwrap the cheese ball on the mixture and roll gently until the entire surface of the ball is covered.4. Serve with a cracker assortment.

Sophie called us to the table. It was beautifully decorated in red and silver. Wine was served and the bread basket passed around. Sophie brought out several platters of oysters, both fresh and cooked. We followed with foie gras, and then with fish in a tomato sauce over rice. After a pause to catch our breath, we started in on the desserts—first the cheese course, of course of course, then three buches de Noël, a cake rolled to look like a log and iced with chestnut cream or chocolate. Also homemade chocolate truffles (many Americans may not know that truffle chocolates are named after the truffle mushroom, because a traditional truffle chocolate looks like a truffle mushroom), and a dessert of whipped cream and syrup de menthe.

I was breathing laboriously, and dinner was still moving on. After-dinner drinks were poured, and coffee served with macarons, possibly the most delicious French cookie existing today, and there’s some stiff competition for that title.

At last the Christmas Eve meal came to a close, at 3 o’clock in the morning. We were so busy eating we had missed Santa Claus.

The next morning I had a small breakfast of truffles and Christmas cookies, trying to conjure up hunger for the next feast.Time again, around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We started with drinks and appetizers, and moved to the table to be greeted with spoons of scallops and a heaping plate of grilled prawns. Once the pile turned into a pile of empty shells, Gérome brought out the lobsters, one per person. Ooh la. The beautiful napkins and tablecloth turned into a mess, but it was well worth it. I sat out the next two courses, those of salad and cheese plate, but was ready to go again for dessert. There were the buches again, the truffles, the gingerbread house and cookies, prunes and walnuts stuffed with almond paste, and a delicious glass of chestnut cream topped with candied chestnuts and pear ice cream. I will have to ask Gérome for that recipe. Luckily ice cream fits in the cracks, otherwise I think I would have exploded.

The present opening was more chaotic than I’m used to. At my house each person opens gifts one-by-one, thanking each gift-giver as necessary, which takes a good couple hours. Chez Didet, everyone had a go at once, wrapping paper flying, and many of the presents weren’t even marked “from.” But everyone had their presents and gave their thank you kisses in the end.

mardi 29 décembre 2009

In the spirit of the holidays, belly set to accommodate three or four times the normal sugar rate, with hours (in fact, days) of spare time on my hands, and two small children in the house, I decided to combine these elements to my advantage and construct a gingerbread house.

Architectural experience is not necessary, but useful. Which is to say, do not take the house pattern lightly. You want the house to stand solidly, to avoid gaping holes between walls (I failed at this), to aim for straight even lines and symmetry. Create or find a pattern, cut out the shapes, and make sure that they fit together correctly.Recruit the children to make the dough. You’ll need to roll out a flat sheet of gingerbread, as large as your oven rack. Plan out how you’ll lay out the pattern pieces, to minimize scrap dough. I’m not providing the recipe I used for my gingerbread house, because it was a French recipe for pain d’épices, the French version of gingerbread, which is a dense bread, not a cookie. The resulting pieces were too thick and not flat, as you can tell from my photos. Try this recipe for gingerbread cookie:

In a large mixing bowl beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until fluffy - at least three minutes. Add molasses and beat well. Combine dry ingredients and add to the batter a little at a time, mixing in each addition. You will have to use your hands to work in the last additions.

Divide dough into thirds and shape into balls. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for several hours, preferably overnight.

Roll out one ball to approximately 3/16 inch thick on a piece of aluminum foil. Dough must be sufficiently chilled before rolling to prevent stickiness. Lightly flour the foil, your hands, and the rolling pin, before rolling to prevent pulling. Or roll between a sheet of foil on the bottom and a sheet of wax paper on top.

Position the pattern templates on top of the dough at least 1 inch apart to allow for a little spreading of dough during baking. Carefully cut out the pieces, using a pastry wheel or paring knife, and gingerly lift the scraps away from the cutout shapes, and return them to the refrigerator. If your house calls for texturized wood grain, panels, brick, etc., score these effects into the gingerbread before baking.

Carefully slide the foil (with the cutouts on it) onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 9 to 11 minutes. Bake until just firm, never browned. Once all of the dough as been used, form the scraps into another ball and roll out again. Avoid rolling the dough out more than twice if you plan to eat your gingerbread as it makes the dough tough.

When all pieces have finished baking, remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheets. As soon as the pieces come out of the oven, check the edges and, if necessary, trim with a sharp knife so that the pieces will fit together. Lay the paper template over each piece to be sure the sides are square with those of the template. The dough will have spread somewhat, but the basic shape should be the same. The dough hardens as it cools, making it more difficult to trim later.

Allow the gingerbread plenty of time to cool on racks before you begin construction. If you can't start right away, slide the fully cooled pieces onto foil-covered cardboard or back onto the cookie sheets, wrap with foil or plastic wrap, and store flat. Gingerbread will stay reasonably fresh for several days.

When the cut out pieces are completely cool, the construction work begins. The pieces are bound together using an icing glue. This is not regular icing—it sticks immediately and dries rapidly, finishing like cement.

Beat eggs and cream of tartar together until foamy, then add the sugar gradually.

The children have probably wandered off by now, so call over another adult to help you hold the pieces in place while you glue. Think of building on top of wax paper or a tray that you won’t have to move the house from afterwards.

Leave the house to dry for a couple hours. Now the fun part beings—decorating! Call the kids back into the kitchen to help. You have prepared a candy assortment and spare icing, haven’t you? Big candies like gumdrops and chocolate look pretty, but make sure you have mostly lightweight candies and thin shapes; they will be easier to glue on.

…and leave the house on display a sufficient amount of time for picture-taking and impressing guests. The gingerbread and the candies will dry out over the course of several days so you probably won’t want to eat the house if you leave it out too long. No matter—the gingerbread house is for admiring, not for eating!

jeudi 17 décembre 2009

I was not what you would call a picky child, but certain foods I refused to eat: mushrooms, olives, bananas. My mother always tried to sneak mushrooms into dinner, exclaiming in surprise, “What? No one but me likes mushrooms?” every time we groaned at the discovery of slimy grey things on our forks. Other foods I merely disliked: chocolate, melons, sauerkraut, cauliflower. My indifference to chocolate sometimes gave actual personal offense to others, especially chunky women with big hips, who would frown at this trespass of reason and good taste. And there existed a vast plethora of foods I had never even eaten before moving out of the house: artichokes, eggplant, zucchini, lentils, asparagus, chickpeas.

I have since come to the conclusion that this behavior is unacceptable. That is, one should not exclude foods in their natural state. Sure, I may not like how something is prepared in combination—vegemite, salmon pizza, thousand island dressing, bbq sauce, mayonnaise, strawberry-rhubarb pie—but to refuse a naturally occurring ingredient for being its unchangeable self is just plain unfair. The variety of edible plant species on this earth is a wondrous thing, and must be taken advantage of.

Back a couple years ago, I started forcing myself to eat foods I disliked, starting with olives. I figured, olives are a culinary staple, up there with caviar and wine for food respectability. No one could possibly take me seriously as a gourmand if I didn’t eat olives. And voilà, now I love them. Current mission: mushrooms. All vegetarians have to like mushrooms, it’s practically a requirement.

Next mission should be bananas, but I’m starting to get the willies. I may have to draw the line at foods that are just plain gross: sea urchin, durian, black licorice, mentaiko (pollack roe). One can only go so far.

Why you should eat mushrooms

Now I’m no mycophagist, but it seems like common sense not to like mushrooms. They’re fungi. They grow in gross places, look gross, and feel gross. They grow in caves, and on feet. Are they even nutritious?

Yes, they are nutritious, many species being high in fiber, various vitamins, and some minerals. Mushrooms are also a significant presence in Chinese, Japanese, and European cuisines.

I don’t suggest you go hunting around in the woods hungry for mushrooms, lest you stumble upon a death cap. Here’s an overview of the most widely available types of mushrooms on the market, which can be divided into 3 groups: common, exotic, and wild.Button—common white mushroom

Shiitake—exotic mushroom from Asia and N America. Dried shiitakes are useful for conserving and for making sauces, just soak to restore. The tough stem is not eaten.

Oyster—exotic, prepare simply to preserve the delicate flavor

Enokitake—exotic, good raw in a salad. If cooking, add to pan at the last minute.

Cremini—exotic, button mushroom with a richer flavorPortobello—exotic, up to 6 inches wide, good for stuffing or grilling

Morel—wild, good in butter or cream sauces, found in spring or dried all year round

Bolete/Porcini—wild, good sautéed, found late summer and early fall

Chanterelle—wild, woodsy flavor, good sautéed, available in summer and fall

Truffle—very rare and expensive wild mushroom, found only in southern France and northern Italy. Black truffles cost $130-390/lb. and white truffles go for $1350-2700/lb. Pigs and dogs are specially trained to hunt for truffles, which grow under the soil on the roots of oaks. Truffle oil, olive oil infused with truffles, can be found more easily.

Tips: To prepare mushrooms, clean mushrooms with a damp towel. Cut white mushrooms just before serving, otherwise they will oxidize and turn brown. When browning mushrooms, sauté with just a little oil and nothing else. Don’t add salt or the mushrooms will give too much moisture to the pan. For making a sauce, dried mushrooms are a better choice because the soaking water can be used in the sauce and the flavor is more concentrated.

Common mushrooms are extremely versatile and make a delicious addition to any sauce or dish, adding a subtle but not overpowering flavor. Note that I specified common mushroom, as I’m not going to be making any truffle dishes anytime soon. My favorite way to cook mushrooms is not even a recipe—just sauté in a pan with olive oil or butter until soft and brown. Second best, sauté them and make an omelet. Or, if you desire something just a tad more fancy:

1. Heat 2 tbs oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add themushrooms, green onions, garlic & cumin & cook, stirring occasionally, for2-3 minutes or until the mushrooms are just tender. Increase the heat tomedium-high & cook, stirring occasionally, for a further 10-12 minutes oruntil the pan juices evaporate. Set aside for 5 minutes.2. To make the burgers, place 1/2the mushroom mixture into a foodprocessor & process until smooth & pureed. Transfer the pureed mixtureto a large heatproof bowl.3. Add the remaining cooked mushrooms, breadcrumbs, egg & salt & pepperto the pureed mushrooms. Mix well to combine. Evenly shape the mixtureinto 4 patties, about 8cm in diameter & 2cm thick.4. Heat the remaining oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat.Add the patties & cook for 4-5 minutes on each side or until cookedthrough. Remove & set aside to drain on paper towel.5. Meanwhile, toast the hamburger buns until golden.6. To serve, place the toasted bun bases onto serving plates, top each withsalad leaves, a patty & mayonnaise. Season with salt & pepper &top with the remaining bun tops. Serve immediately.

lundi 14 décembre 2009

In the spirit of Christmas, I have been in a cookie-making frenzy. I went to a Christmas Cookie party this weekend at my friend Andi’s place, where we got all sugared up and played rowdy Christmas games. Among those present at the party . . .

Linzertorte Cookies

This classic Austrian treat comes in torte (lattice pie) form, but makes for beautiful wintertime cookies. The powdered sugar topping is reminiscent of snow, and the center cutouts and red jam contrast are instantly striking. The dough is basically a sugar cookie dough with ground nuts (usually hazelnuts, but also almonds or walnuts—I used almonds) and lemon zest. The lemon zest is absolutely essential; the flavor really comes out in the cookie. If you want to impress, this is the cookie for you.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and lemon peel. In another bowl, stir together the flour, almonds, cinnamon and cloves. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. The dough will be stiff, so you may need to knead it by hand to get it to come together.3. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into rounds using a cookie cutter. Place cookies onto a cookie sheet spaced 2 inches apart. Count your rounds and use a small cookie cutter to cut the center out of half of the cookies. This can be done while the other half of the cookies bakes.4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm and lightly browned at the edges. Allow cookies to cool completely. Spread jam on the tops of the solid cookies and top with the cookies that have shapes cut out. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Orange Gingerbread

Last month I was seduced by the chewy, faintly spicy gingerbread from Nuremburg, Germany, called lebkuchen. Lebkuchen comes in cookies, but I decided to make a block of gingerbread. Real gingerbread is made with molasses, and you just won’t get the same flavor and color without it, but you can settle for a honey substitution.

In this particular recipe the orange flavor overrides everything else, so it ends up being orange bread more than gingerbread. Which was still tasty, but if you want to stick to the spice flavors I suggest cutting out the orange juice and orange liqueur.

1. Whisk together the flours, baking powder, and spices.2. In a large bowl, cream the butter or margarine with the brown sugar. Beat in the eggs, then the honey, orange liqueur, sour cream, and orange juice. Beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture, and then stir in the raisins and ginger. Turn batter into a greased and floured tube pan.3. Bake cake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 80 minutes, or until it tests done with toothpick. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies(photo, below right)

Like snickerdoodles, these cookies are fun to make, so you can pass off the baking on any small children there might be around the house. The texture is what makes these cookies so good—perfectly soft and chewy. I’m no big fan of chocolate, but these cookies won me over. Recipe courtesy of Andi Busch and family.

1. Mix oil, chocolate, and sugar. Blend in one egg at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in salt, flour and baking powder which have been sifted together.2. Spoon out small balls and roll them in confectioner's sugar. If you refrigerate the mixture before spooning it out, it is easier to handle!3. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Hermits(photo, left)

These holiday spice bars will remind your mouth that it is indeed the Christmas season. Another Andi Busch family favorite.

1. Sift together flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Put butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl and cream them well. Blend in the egg and egg yolk. Beat well. Add dry ingredients gradually. Stir in currents and nuts.2. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Shape each in a 13" roll and place 4 " apart on a cookie sheet. Flatten to 1/2 " using a floured fork. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle a few chopped nuts on top.3. Bake at 400 for 11-14 minutes until lightly brown. Cut diagonally into 1" bars.

Eggnog

There’s a reason eggnog is a Christmas drink—nobody could stomach it more than once a year. It is pretty heavy stuff. Half eggs, half milk and cream, with a good dose of alcohol. Personally, a second glass would have made me vomit. But I’ll give you the recipe anyways. You can substitute dark rum for the whiskey and brandy.

1. In a large bowl and using a mixer, beat the egg yolks together with the sugar for approx 10 minutes (you want the mixture to be firm and the colour of butter).2. Very slowly, add in the bourbon and brandy - just a little at a time.3. When bourbon and brandy have been added, allow the mixture to cool in the fridge (for up to 6 hours, depending on how long before your party you're making the eggnog).4. 30 minutes before your guests arrive, stir the milk into the chilled yolk mixture. 5. Stir in 1+ ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg6. .In a separate bowl, beat the cream with a mixer on high speed until the cream forms stiff peaks.7. In yet another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.8. Gently fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

9. Gently fold the cream into the egg mixture.10. After ladling into cups, garnish with the remainder of the ground nutmeg.

jeudi 10 décembre 2009

We have our first guest blogger! My friend Tim Peters writes from Argentina on an unusual combination: cheese pasta and stir fry flavors.

Can cheese go with an east-Asian stir-fry?

I’m living in Argentina. One day I made a broccoli and beef stir-fry with rice. One of my roommates took a hunk of cheese out of the refrigerator and started grating it over his plate.

My culinary senses tingled. Grated cheese with rice? And with a soy/peanut/orange juice sauce?My roommate grates a lot of cheese. His dad worked for a dairy company so there was always a lot of cheese in his house.

He offered to grate some on my stir-fry. I passed.

After I got used to him doing this, I thought…could it be so wrong? The reason there’s so little cheese in Chinese cuisine, for example, was the lack of space in which to raise dairy cows. That geographical necessity doesn’t imply a culinary necessity. And just because a regional cuisine starts off without an ingredient doesn’t mean it can’t mix it in and make it essential. Just look at that staple of Italian cooking, the tomato, which wasn’t even brought to Europe until the conquest of America.

So I thought…well, rice is a pretty neutral-flavored, starchy carb…just like potatoes or pasta, onto which we don’t hesitate to grate cheese.

As such, here’s a recipe I came up with that combines an east-Asian stir-fry sauce (along with some fried veggies) with Italian (Argentine, really) cheese raviolis:

Ricotta ravioli with a Thai stir-fry sauce

Ingredients:

Raviolis:Here in Paraná, Argentina, I can go to the grocery store and buy pastas made that morning or the day before by a local company. A 500g box of raviolis costs four pesos, or about 1 USD! 500g of raviolis serves three people.

I use ricotta-stuffed raviolis. The other options, for us here, are vegetable or chicken. With ricotta the dish is vegetarian and fills you up pretty well. The ricotta’s got a very mild flavor and is a good base for the rich sauce.

Sauce:2-3 tbsp soy sauce – Sad irony of Argentina: despite being one of the world’s largest soy producers, soy sauce and especially tofu are very hard to come by and expensive, and have no place in the local cuisine.

1 tbsp crushed peanuts

½ of an orange

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 large carrot

1 medium onion

1 medium red bell pepper

1 clove garlic

1-3 tbsp crushed red pepper (optional)

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil (or whatever oil you like to stir-fry with)

some smooth cheese for grating

Instructions:I make the sauce while the water for the raviolis is heating up.

I chop up the onions, throw them into a couple tablespoons oil on medium/high heat, and throw some salt onto them. Next I chop up the garlic, finely, and throw that in. Next the carrots, which I slice into coins. Last comes the bell pepper. If you want some spice, throw in 1-3 tbsp of crushed red chili peppers.

I keep the heat the same and make sure to keep stirring. If you want the veggies crispier, don’t cook them so long. Don’t let them get limp and translucent.

For the sauce: put 2-3 tbsp soy sauce into a mixing bowl. Wash your hands and dip your finger in and get a feel for the flavor. Next I squeeze in some juice from the orange, tasting the sauce until it has a citrus flavor. Next, I mix in some of the crushed peanuts, stirring them in and tasting the sauce until I notice the peanut flavor. Next, mix in the 1 tbsp of corn starch, which when the sauce gets heated, while make it thick and sticky.

The raviolis cook in 2-3 minutes. Once they float to the top of the water, they’re ready. So, once I throw the raviolis in the water, then I mix the sauce into the stir-fry and stir it in. It thickens quickly. If the sauce starts bubbling I turn down the heat so it simmers until the raviolis are ready.

mardi 8 décembre 2009

I got this brownie recipe courtesy of Buns in My Oven, a cooking blog with great recipes and even better photos—is the photo above not the most flattering picture of a brownie you’ve ever seen?

Like the writer of that blog, I was never too keen on homemade brownies. They tend to end up cakey, dry, thin, or full of nuts (if you ask me, nothing destroys that perfect chewy brownie texture like nuts—blech!). I’ve always preferred brownies from a box. I was a teenage expert at brownie-from-the-box making before I even knew how to operate an egg beater. You open the plastic bag, dump the powder in the bowl, throw in the egg and the oil, stir, toss the pan in the oven, lick the bowl clean while you wait, and 35 minutes later you and a friend each grab a fork . . . and the ensuing magic can only be imagined.

Until now, with the discovery of a homemade brownie that is EVEN BETTER than the box! These brownies take the cake. Literally, they take the cake, step on it, and throw it out the window.

Look again at the picture. See that sparkle, the glistening moisture, like fertile soil after a rain? That is pure black gold. I can now state with confidence that brownies are the best desserts ever in the history of baking.

1.Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×13 baking dish.2. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.3. Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.4. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips until well combined.5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until a tester comes out mostly clean. The edges should be set and the center should still look slightly moist, but not uncooked. Cool on a wire rack.

dimanche 6 décembre 2009

I’m always a fan of sociable dining, and especially in winter, when packing guests elbow-to-elbow around the table generates much-needed body heat (is North America the only place in the world with central heating? Is it??), so I replied with an enthusiastic OUI BIEN SÛR when invited to a raclette dinner last Friday.

For an intimate, convivial atmosphere you can’t beat cooking food directly at the table and sharing the same dish among everyone. Hands are darting in and out of the center, the cheese is passed around every which way (French politess tip #1: always offer the morsel you just cooked to others first, and only if everyone refuses serve yourself), glasses are clinking, bread crumbs flying, conversations entangling.

I experienced the One Pot Love effect already this season in hosting a fondue savoyarde party; this time around it’s one cheese love, or maybe grilled cheesy love: Raclette, the svelte suédoise.

Le raclette is the name of a cheese originating from Switzerland and also made nowadays in the Savoie region of France. The dish la raclette (notice the gender change to differentiate the two) has been around since the middle ages. It’s a simple combination of heated raclette cheese scraped onto a plate of roasted potatoes, an assortment of dried meats, gherkins, and pickled onions. The word “raclette” comes from the French racler, meaning “to scrape.”

In our modern electric era, Raclette is heated on a table top grill using small pans to hold individual slices of cheese. Supermarkets carry packages of pre-sliced raclette cheese and meat assortments, so this is a meal almost free of preparation. The only cooking involved is roasting the potatoes, which leaves the host free to make the rounds of bisous (the French greeting custom of kissing both cheeks) and to serve aperitifs (before dinner drinks).

Raclette

Raclette cheese, slicedWhole small potatoes Assortment of dried meats, sliced thinlyPicklesPickled onions or other dishesWhite wine, to serve with

1. Scrub the potatoes and roast in a 400F oven until pierced easily, about 40 minutes.2. Set the table with plates of dried meat, sliced cheese, and pickled vegetables3. Roast the cheese slice by slice on the table top grill and serve as it is ready, scraping directly on top of the potatoes, meat, and vegetables. Alternately, roast the cheese in the oven and serve at once.

vendredi 4 décembre 2009

I follow a diet that is officially called pescatarian, meaning I exclude meat and poultry but allow fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy. This means hypocrisy in the eyes of some people. I offer a rebuttal.

Prelude: I will briefly explain my reasons for (still) eating seafood, while I haven’t eaten meat in over 3 years. In general, when making a significant diet change, it is wise to go gradually, or one risks feeling dissatisfied and giving up the diet completely. This is equally true for cutting down carbs as well as going vegetarian/vegan. Three years ago I decided to give up meat, but I kept seafood in my diet for the nutrition and menu choice at restaurants. One year later, I was off to Japan where it is significantly harder to avoid eating seafood. Now, living in France, I have not cut seafood out from my diet completely but it occurs only rarely—when I’m a guest at dinner, when there is no other choice at a restaurant. I purchase fish or seafood, and I try to avoid choosing fish, especially tuna, when eating out.

Now, sometimes confusion occurs among others (non-vegetarians, for the most part), when I specify my eating habits. Some fail to understand why I make the difference between meat and seafood. Some imply that by allowing some meat (fish) I am betraying my cause, thereby making it void. Here is my response, on behalf of semi-vegetarians, vegetarians, and vegans alike.

Vegetarianism is not a religion

Vegetarianism is a political and moral cause. It is not a health movement, it is not a choice undertaken because one is grossed out by the thought of bleeding pigs. It is a specific political action to counter the system of exploitation of animals that is inextricable to the modern meat industry. There are many distinct causes to protest: the suffering of animals, the health risks present in many meat products, the damage to the environment, the macho culture of carnivorism, but I won’t go into that here. The point is that being an activist movement, participation in any form is useful and beneficial to the cause. There are no fundamentalist vegetarians (well, perhaps there are, but that would be silly).

We are not Orthodox Jews who must keep kosher; we are not Muslims who are forbidden to eat pork. Our rule, the rule of not eating meat, is flexible, because it is an individual choice.

All or nothing

Most people would say, there are vegetarians, and there are the rest of us. You’re either veg or you ain’t. Either you eat tofu or you eat death. But the question is not whether you eat meat or not. This difference is essentially unimportant. This is the difference between meat being 0% of your diet, versus meat being 1% to 100% of your diet (or, being more reasonable, since none of you are actually lions—between 1% to 20% of your diet).

Think about it for a moment—how often do you eat meat? At every meal? Once a day? A couple times a week? More rarely? Everyone’s going to have different responses. Let’s say Bob eats a hamburger for lunch every day, Susan has one twice a week, and Liz never touches one. Susan and Liz have a lot more in common than Susan and Bob.

Mark Bittman, a food writer who hosts The Minimalist video shorts on newyorktimes.com, has written several vegetarian cookbooks even though he is not vegetarian himself. I like him because he turns the distinction between veg and non-veg on its head, while putting forth recipes that promote a reduction of meat intake. He has suggested diets such as vegetarian-before-dinner, vegetarian-on-weekdays, vegan-for-breakfast, and his recipes often reverse the proportions of meat to vegetables, making vegetables take up most of the focus and the calories and saving the meat for embellishment.

I’ve heard many times, “I tried to become vegetarian once. But I love meat too much.” That’s a false distinction. Arby’s may draw an impassable line between muscled meat-lover and pansy salad-lover, but real people have a combination of both tastes. If you care even a little about any of the causes vegetarianism supports, all you have to do is reduce your meat intake.

Supporting vegetarianism is not all or nothing. No one would venture to say that someone who actively tries to reduce her daily carbon emissions by commuting daily on bicycle is hypocritical because she drives on the weekends.

Practicality

A friend once told me that her problem with vegetarians and vegans was that they were inconsistent. They might not eat butter from a cow, for example, but they’d wear leather shoes. Well of course we’re inconsistent! For vegans, is it even possible to avoid every single animal product in daily commercial use? This goes way beyond food and clothing. It extends to makeup, perfumes, lotions, wine, toothpastes, tennis racquets and musical instruments, candles, paints, varnish, vitamins and medicines. Even being a strict vegetarian is difficult. It is not always obvious when foods contain animal remains: gelatin (made with animal collagen) is in marshmallows, jello, some pastries, and some yogurts, and vegetable soups often have chicken, beef, or fish stock.

Any system that demands perfection is not sustainable. We don’t demand perfection. We demand a significant change of lifestyle towards less dependence on products that exploit animals.

Bad and less bad

So why eat fish and not meat? Why draw the line there? Is killing and eating a fish or shellfish less wrong than killing and eating a pig? Yes, I would argue. Most animal rights supporters base their beliefs on the idea that causing unnecessary suffering is morally indefensible. It can be argued that fish suffer less than mammals or poultry. Many people might disagree with me here, are there are legitimate philosophical and moral arguments to the contrary, but the fact rests that there is a world of difference between sucking a few live oysters down and the billions of pigs that are raised in horrendous slaughterhouse conditions each year.

Environmentally-speaking, the stakes are a bit different. It’s important to pay attention and be informed about individual species. The over-consumption of tuna is already a grave problem (bluefin tuna will likely be extinct in our lifetime if the world continues its present rate of consumption), the popular seafood menu choices Chilean sea-bass and orange roughy are in severe decline, and Atlantic farmed salmon comes from enormous, over-crowded farms that pollute the nearby waters. Fishing wild Alaskan salmon, on the other hand, does little damage to the environment.

In conclusion:I hope this post will encourage people to think beyond vegetarian and meat-eater and consider the impact of individual dietary choices. If you’ve thought, even idly, about reducing your meat consumption for whatever reason—political, health, environmental—but felt like you couldn’t cut it out completely, now is the time to think about a more creative way to do it that is sustainable in the long-term. Avoid certain foods, tuna for example, veal, or red meat. Stop cooking with meat, treating yourself only at restaurants. Eat meat only at dinner, or special occasions.

Being conscious of what you are consuming and whose pocket you are lining with your money is not tree-hugging crazy-talk. It’s essential as product manufacture becomes increasingly removed from you and your home, as consumers are increasingly unaware of how and where products are made. Who’s benefiting from your ignorance? And who’s suffering as a result?

mercredi 2 décembre 2009

As you can see I’m not on the ball for Thanksgiving, arguably the biggest food event of the year. But I imagine many of you have part of a bowl of dried-out mashed potatoes still in the fridge, or maybe some pumpkin pie crumbs on the floor at least. Despite being in France, I refused to miss Thanksgiving, and with the help of my friend Andi, who hosted a Thanksgiving meal of 20 people at her place, I was able to enjoy all the classics (minus the turkey of course).

Thanksgiving was originally a harvest festival, to celebrate the edible wonders that grace the earth of North America; our modern Thanksgiving table spread adheres to this quite strictly: roast turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, cornbread, green beans, apple pie, cranberry sauce. The feast that we call “the first Thanksgiving” was not at the time actually considered to be a Thanksgiving festival (that is, a religious observance of giving thanks to God), just an event to celebrate the successful harvest. In case you were absent that day of first grade when everyone made pilgrim hats and Indian feathers out of construction paper and learned the story of Thanksgiving, it goes like this: the pilgrims disembarked the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock in December of 1620, and subsequently lost almost half of their number to the severe winter. The harvest the following autumn, however, was bountiful, and to celebrate this the surviving pilgrims (about 55 at this time) organized a 3 day feast with about 90 Native Americans who had helped them throughout the year.

The table spread at this feast didn’t quite match our modern one—it’s not certain that there was actually turkey, and definitely not flour to make pies, or potatoes, which were still distrusted by the Europeans (they believed them to be poisonous). Instead, the pilgrims and Native Americans feasted on fish, lobster, clams, venison, pumpkin, berries, and plums. Good news for those pescatarians out there who want to be faithful to Thanksgiving.

The feast was not repeated, however, for many years, and it doesn’t have much historical connection to our modern holiday. Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until 1863, when President Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day as the last Thursday of November.

Nevertheless, this story reminds me of the importance of the harvest, and how settler communities throughout history have thrived and starved on the success of their crops, how empires have made their fortunes on, and others been enslaved by, edible resources (opium, tea, chocolate); how fortunate we are to live on a land able to support a variety of foods, and in a society with access to a much larger variety.

Nowadays, Thanksgiving is a secular holiday that is an opportunity to get together with family and share a meal important to our national geography and history. It is, foremost, a celebration of food. It is also an opportunity to give thanks for the wealth and abundance that fills the platters on our tables, and to reflect on what it means and has meant for these 400 years to be an American.